Skeleton Crew, by Stephen King

Steven King is such a good writer.  I really enjoyed most of the stories in this collection.  In reading these stories, it occurred to me that King excels at three of the six core competencies:  character, concept and writing voice.  He creates characters we care about, he always has an interesting, novel hook, and he strikes just the right balance of writing interesting descriptions without writing purple prose.  These three elements combine to create stories that begin wonderfully, draw the reader in and set up big expectations for the end.  Unfortunately, this is usually where King's stories fall short.  Because the stories aren't planned out with a structure, the endings are hit-or-miss.  Some in this collection, like The Jaunt, The Man Who Would Not Shake Hands and Survivor Type, had great endings.  Others, like The Raft, Uncle Otto's Truck, and The Milkman Stories just peter out without a strong conclusion or theme.  Nonetheless, all these stories are worth reading for their imaginative concepts and characters as well as their wonderful examples of strong writing.